Now the Broncos will have to win at Gonzaga for tournament bye

Published 4:00 am, Friday, February 23, 1996

PORTLAND - A lackluster outing Thursday night against Portland means that Santa Clara will have to defeat Gonzaga in Spokane Saturday in order to win the West Coast Conference regular season title.

The Broncos (18-7, 9-4) fell behind 25-6 in the first 10 minutes of the first half and committed 16 turnovers by halftime en route to an 80-71 loss to the Pilots (16-9, 7-6). Rick Brainard led the Pilots with 19 points, 15 of them in the second half.

"We were really disappointed in the fact that defensively we couldn't stop them from scoring," said Broncos coach Dick Davey. "And you can't expect to make 16 turnovers in the first half and expect to win."

Gonzaga defeated St. Mary's Thursday in overtime to take over first place at 10-3 in the conference, but if the teams finish tied at 10-4, Santa Clara would win the conference tournament bye by virtue of a season sweep of Gonzaga.

First, it will have to rebound from a big disappointment. The Broncos started chipping at a 15-point lead with a 13-3 run beginning with 15:55 left, and finally cut the lead two points on Adam Anderson's steal and layup with 5:01 left in the game.

But Dionn Holton's basket pushed the score to 60-52 with 3:09 remaining and the Broncos never again got closer than six.

Holton, scored a career-high 17 points and held point guard Steve Nash to eight points - half his average. Nash had seven assists, but made six of Santa Clara's season-high 26 turnovers.

"I just tried to stay in front of him because if he gets any space he can find the open man," Holton said, "but it was the whole team. I think we played our best game of the season. We were hungrier than them. Maybe they were looking past us to Saturday."

* Gonzaga 83, St. Mary's 82: Lorenzo Rollins hit a pair of game-winning free throws with four seconds remaining in overtime as host Gonzaga (19-6, 10-3) edged St. Mary's (11-14, 4-9) and took sole possession of the WCC lead.

Rollins' free throws, which came on a foul called against the Gaels' Reggie Steele, followed a 3-point shot by David Sivulich that had put St. Mary's ahead 82-81 with 30 seconds left in overtime.

Gonzaga's top scorer was Paul Rogers with 20 points, while St. Mary's got 28 points from Sivulich, including 21 points from 3-point range.

* San Jose State 69, UC-Santa Barbara 66: The visiting Spartans (8-15, 7-8 Big West) won their fourth straight, behind solid inside play from forward Sam Allen and center Roy Hammonds. Allen led San Jose State with 16 points.

UC-Santa Barbara (11-13, 8-8) scored just one basket the last 6:20 after taking a 64-56 lead.

* San Francisco State 84, College of Notre Dame 83: Kenny Evans hit nine of 15 shots, including 3-of-6 3-point tries, for a total of 24 points, and S.F. State (8-17, 5-9 NCAC) won at College of Notre Dame (4-22, 1-13).

Cal women lose again

Washington jumped out to a early 31-6 lead behind 11 points from Laure Savasta and eight from Gena Pelz, then coasted to a 93-58 victory over California Thursday night in Seattle.

Washington (14-10, 8-5 Pacific-10) won its second game in a row after three consecutive losses. The Huskies remained tied with Arizona for third place in the Pac-10.

California (5-18, 1-13) has lost 12 straight games overall and eight consecutive games to Washington.

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Savasta scored 24 points and Pelz notched her eighth double-double of the season with 14 points and 12 rebounds. Jamie Redd and Melissa Wuschnig scored 14 points each for the Huskies.

* San Francisco State 80, College of Notre Dame 66: Center Michelle Wenzler connected on 12 of 18 field goals to lead San Francisco State (13-13, 6-8) past host College of Notre Dame (7-19, 0-14).&lt;

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